Praise for The Secret History

"A penetrating analysis certain to compel a major reassessment of the Nabokov canon."
— starred review, Booklist

"...a brilliant examination that adds to the understanding of an inspiring and enigmatic life."
— starred review, Kirkus

"Highly recommended for all Nabokov fans..."
— starred review, Library Journal

"Certainly the most remarkable and insightful book on Vladimir Nabokov in many years."
— Michael Maar, author of Speak, Nabokov and The Two Lolitas

"... an intriguing and provocative new take on one of the giants of modern American letters."
— Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion: 1914-1918 and other books

"... a feat of fascinating literary detective work ..."
— Christopher Goffard, author of You Will See Fire and Snitch Jacket

"A wide-ranging introduction to Nabokov's life and work as well as a game-changer for those readers who thought they knew his writing cold."
— Steven Belletto, author of No Accident, Comrade: Chance and Design in Cold War American Narratives (Oxford U. Press)

Archive for the "News" Category

The Secret History book tour continues! Coming up next: Minneapolis and Chicago

Thursday, May 2, I’ll be reading from The Secret History at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis/St. Paul’s largest independent bookstore. The event starts at 7:30 pm. I promise not to do the Mary Tyler Moore thing with the hat, because everyone there has probably already seen that at least once or twice. But I am excited about […]

Public Radio International’s “The World” features The Secret History

In case you missed it, last week I got a chance to talk about The Secret History with Marco Werman, host of Public Radio International’s “The World.”  We discussed Nabokov’s gift for outrunning history, 20th-century anti-Semitism, and Solzhenitsyn, among other things. At one point, Werman asked about the reception the book is getting, and I somehow ended […]

Mad Men, Nabokov, and more praise for The Secret History

What do Entertainment Weekly, The Brooklyn Rail, and the Netherlands’ Radio One all have in common? They’ve been pondering Nabokov! Writing about Mad Men‘s season premiere, EW‘s Keith Staskiewicz begins with a quote from Nabokov (which, he notes, comes from the era in which the episode is set). The two sentences he includes are taken from […]

Friday reading at Harvard Book Store

If you live in the greater Boston area, be sure to come to Harvard Book Store in Cambridge this Friday at 7:00 pm, when I’ll be reading from (and signing copies of) The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov. I’m excited to return to Cambridge, where I was living when I first began my research—and where Nabokov […]

The winner of The Secret History photo contest

Thanks to all of you who sent in pictures of yourselves with your copy of The Secret History! I’ll announce the winner of the drawing (and explain our super-scientific method for choosing) in a moment. But before we get to that, I’d like to share two photos that knocked my socks off even though they […]

The New Republic weighs in on The Secret History

In June 1962 Mary McCarthy wrote what would become perhaps the most famous review ever written of Nabokov’s Pale Fire. In “Bolt from the Blue,” which ran in the pages of The New Republic, McCarthy called the novel a “a clockwork toy, a chess problem, an infernal machine,” and “one of the very great works of […]